McAnulty’s Mission

The College prepares students for productive and creative lives of service in a rapidly changing world. We teach students to think, write and speak clearly and critically, so they can seek truth about God, themselves, and society, and contribute to their families, communities, businesses and professions.

This semester we had some great entries to the video contest and here are the first and second place winners. Eric Formato won $300 for his video and Becca Kopcie won $200 for hers. Thanks for the videos guys!

Duquesne University President Charles Dougherty was recently named by the Pittsburgh Business Times as a Diamond Award Winner. The award honors “presidents and chief executive officers (CEOs) of both for-profit and non-profit enterprises based on qualities including leadership, organizational success and efforts by the individual outside of the organization.”

In the past few months, Duquesne’s President has been the center of increased media attention. While some may disagree with decisions of his recently, it’s hard to argue against the progress Duquesne has made under Dougherty’s tenure.

A Duquesne press release highlights a few of the advancements the school has made since Dougherty began:

moved into the top tier in the U.S. News and World Report’s prestigious annual ranking of America’s Best Colleges

established its first-ever Strategic Plan and has approved its second Strategic Plan

experienced record-breaking enrollment

earned its first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver Rating (for the new Power Center) and LEED Gold Rating (for renovations to the Duquesne Union) from the U.S. Green Building Council.

For many students, the President is someone they may never meet during their time at school, but the Duquesne Duke recently ran a two part feature on Dougherty that helps to bridge the gap between students and the Administration.

“But [Student Government President James] Regar said the president’s long-term legacy will likely be the physical expansion of the campus, including the addition of the Power Center, the acquisition of Brottier Hall and campus beautification. These improvements, along with increasing community involvement and running a successful fundraising campaign, will “overshadow” the tension resulting from some of his decisions, he said.”

The University expanded its campus, acquiring in January 2004 the Citiline Towers apartment building, now called Brottier Hall. Duquesne went on to purchase land along Forbes Avenue where it constructed the Power Center, which opened in January 2008 and was later certified by U.S. Green Building Council. Since then, the University has acquired a number of buildings along Fifth Avenue.

“Just look around,” said University Provost Ralph Pearson. “I can see the difference now from when I arrived nine years ago. I mean, it’s really a beautiful campus.”

It’s easy to agree, the campus has greatly improved in the past few years and it’s also clear that the Administration and Dougherty plan to continue that trend.

The Honors College devotes a semester every year to a neighborhood-based service project, and the students contribute their results as a gift to the neighborhood.

In getting to know the neighborhood, the students researched it and spent hours at a time for several weeks walking around, talking to merchants and preachers and people on the street, attending meetings and going to church.

In their class summaries, several wrote that the experience made them a little more worldly.

“This class has opened my eyes a lot more to the world around me that I normally don’t see,” said Kyle Wiltsey.

“I feel that I have a much greater awareness of the situations and conditions that disadvantaged people in poor communities have to deal with,” wrote Spencer Heaps.

This was a great project and will surely be a great addition to the YMCA!

You can learn more about service learning at Duquesne here and more on the Honors College here.

I’ve been waiting to post my finals blog until after graduation so I could report on the festivities, plus I’ve been super busy!

Finals weren’t too bad. I have two final papers, two presentations, and four exams, but I made it through! I still think one of the best feelings in the world is selling books back and recycling old notes. I am still checking DORI constantly because only half of my final grades have been posted. I picked up a free yearbook during my last day on campus, and it has been fun to look through and this years pictures and events.

The graduation ceremony for the whole University was on Friday at 5 p.m. There was a baccalaureate service earlier in the afternoon, but my family and I didn’t go. The whole school graduation was nice, and big! It was in the Palumbo Center and the students sat on the floor arranged by school. There was a speaker, we sang the Alma Mater, and the doctoral students were hooded by their advisors. After the ceremony, I went out to eat with my family and friends who had attended the event. It was a nice night, and we were glad we took part.

The Liberal Arts graduation was early Saturday morning. The event started at 9 a.m. and students were supposed to arrive early to get checked in, get their note card with their name on it, and arrange in alphabetical order. It wasn’t as chaotic as you’d think, and it was actually nice to see so many familiar faces of students and professors. I realized how many people I’ve come to either befriend or at least know from classes over the years, and how many different Liberal Arts professors I’ve come to know.

The Liberal Arts graduation went quickly, considering each graduate was called up on stage and given their (fake) diploma individually. (Our real diplomas get mailed to us after all final grades are submitted.) My family enjoyed seeing my walk across the stage! There was a reception following the ceremony, but we decided to skip because it was pretty cold outside!

My family planned a nice graduation dinner for my last night with friends and family. They wouldn’t tell me where we were going, they just told me to dress up! After driving through downtown passing every restaurant that I had guessed, we ended up at the Georgetowne Inn on Mt. Washington. I had been up to Mt. Washington a few times to take pictures, but never to eat! Before our reservation, we rode the Duquesne Incline down and back up for the great views and memories.

Then we ate right next to the window at the Georgetowne Inn, which was an amazing view! It was an awesome dinner and a great way to celebrate my graduation and moving on to the next phase. It was fireworks night at the Pirate game, so we got to end the night by watching fireworks on the river!

Overall, it was a great weekend. I am exhausted and a little stressed about the amount of packing I have to do in the next week, but the graduation ceremonies were a good way to celebrate my accomplishment. I’ve added some graduation pictures to the Liberal Arts facebook page, so take a look!

Thanks for sticking with me over the past two years, through tests, stress, jobs, applying to schools, and graduation. I’ve really enjoyed blogging and getting a chance to share my views and experiences with Duquesne and the College of Liberal Arts. Have a good summer, Duquesne students, and enjoy the years to have left on the Bluff.

For those of you who are interested, I survived junior year. I’m officially a senior at Duquesne University. You may hold your applause until the end of the blog post.

But before I get to the the thrill of graduation, the agony of senior thesis, and the human drama of secondary education (props to anyone who gets that reference), another four-month task stands in my way: the temporary workforce.

In my flurry of schoolwork, school newspaper work, work study job, and trying to maintain some semblance of a social life, I had little chance to search for a job or internship most of the semester. The job I had last summer – “warehouse associate” of a company that made aluminum insulator pipes – can’t give me hours, and while my hands are very happy that they won’t be bleeding as much this summer, my wallet is not as happy.

Even internships are difficult to come by. Journalism internships are rough because most don’t pay well, if at all. And banks aren’t exactly chomping at the bit to give out internships with this whole “we’-re having a financial crisis and it’s all the banks’ fault” thing going on. This means I’m doing what I’ve done for the last two summers: searching for random full and part time labor to get me through until August.

However, my suffering can be to your benefit, readers. Frantically searching for employment has made me somewhat well-versed in the art of the summer job search.

First off, the Internet is a beautiful thing, especially if you don’t live in the area you go to school in (i.e. you go to Duquesne but live in Philadelphia like me). Not only are online job search sites great for simply looking for jobs, but most offer a “common application,” meaning you fill out your core application once and submit that to each employer, with a couple additional questions to answer for each individual job. This saves you an incredible amount of time; in the time it would take you to drive around town and fill out three or four applications, you can apply for twenty-five different positions online.

For jobs or internships that are related to your major in college, you need to be looking starting in January. They’re valuable, competitive, and fill up very quickly. A site like JobsOnline or Monster that specializes in long-term “career”-type employment would be a good place to look for these jobs.

For regular summer jobs, such as working in retail or landscaping, you can usually apply later in the semester, even up until late April, and still be okay. SnagAJob.com is a great site for this. You may think that online applications get lost in the mess of millions of applicants, but I received two phone calls just two days after applying for jobs on SnagAJob.

Second, if you’ve applied for online jobs and haven’t heard back in about a week, drive around to the different places you applied and see what’s going on. You can call and do this as well, but it’s much harder for someone to deny you or claim they “don’t do job applications” in person than over the phone. Plus, while some might seem annoyed that you’re “harassing” them, most will appreciate your hustle.

Day camps are always fun too. If you’re good with children and don’t mind (or love) being outside, being a day camp counselor is a great job, although the pay is not always the greatest.

Lastly, there’s always College Pro Painter. A painting and window-cleaning company, College Pro Painter has been hiring exclusively college students for summer work for nearly forty years. You’ll spend the summer “cold-calling” potential customers for estimates, painting houses, and basically working hard, but they have a very good hire rate. Always consider them, unless you’re not a fan of manual labor or pass out at the scent of acrylic paint.

That’s the end of my guided tour of summer employment. We hope you’ll come again soon. The gift shop is to your right–please buy something. As I’ve mentioned before, I could certainly use the cash.

Time really does fly. Yesterday seriously feels like the first day of high school and I’m already done with my freshman year in college. Of course I’m excited for the summer, but there is a bit of bitter sweet feelings in the air. All the work is over, but another year in gone in my life. As corny as this sounds when you stop and think, you realize how fast time really goes. Most people go through life not truly appreciating every day. People are too busy with school, work, jobs, and feel too stressed out to enjoy each and every day. They wish for weekends, summers, vacations without appreciating every day. Everyone is looking to live in the future, but the present is where we should be living. Time is too valuable to throw away. Confucius once said, “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” There are obviously going to be bad days at times you can’t wait for a new day, but make sure it does not become a pattern. The future is an exciting time especially since college is setting us up for a successful future, but just remember to take one day at a time. College is meant to be some of the most exciting years of our life, so don’t waste them. Have a GREAT SUMMER!